Optimize PostgreSQL read-only tables

Question

I have many read-only tables in a Postgres database. All of these tables can be queried using any combination of columns.

What can I do to optimize queries? Is it a

Answer 1

If you have filtering by more columns indexes may help but not too much. Also indexes may not help for small tables.

First search for "postgresql tuning" - you will find usefull information.

If database can fit in memory - buy enough RAM. If database can not fit in memory - SSD will help. If this is not enough and database is read only - run 2, 3 or more servers. Or partition database (in the best case to fit in memory of each server).

Even if queries are generated I think they will not be random. Monitor database for slow queries and improve only them.

Answer 2

Columns that are used for filtering or joining (or, to a lesser degree, sorting) are of interest for indexing. Columns that are just selected are barely relevant! For the following query only indexes on a and e may be useful:

SELECT a,b,c,d
  FROM tbl_a
 WHERE a = $some_value
   AND e < $other_value;

Here, f and possibly c are candidates, too:

SELECT a,b,c,d
  FROM tbl_a
  JOIN tbl_b USING (f)
 WHERE a = $some_value
   AND e < $other_value
 ORDER BY c;

After creating indexes, test to see if they are actually useful with EXPLAIN ANALYZE. Also compare execution times with and without the indexes. Deleting and recreating indexes is fast and easy. There are also parameters to experiment with EXPLAIN ANALYZE. The difference may be staggering or nonexistent.
As your tables are read only, index maintenance is cheap. It's merely a question of disc space.

If you really want to know what you are doing, start by reading the docs.

If you don't know what queries to expect ...

1. Try logging enough queries to find typical use cases. Log queries with the parameter log_statement = all for that. Or just log slow queries using log_min_duration_statement.

2. Create indexes that might be useful and check the statistics after some time to see what actually gets used. PostgreSQL has a whole infrastructure in place for monitoring statistics. One convenient way to study statistics (and many other tasks) is pgAdmin where you can chose your table / function / index and get all the data on the "statistics" tab in the object browser (main window).

3. Proceed as described above to see if indexes in use actually speed things up.

4. If the query planner should chose to use one or more of your indexes but to no or adverse effect then something is probably wrong with your setup and you need to study the basics of performance optimization: vacuum, analyze, cost parameters, memory usage, ...